![]() Once a donor heart is removed from the body, instead of being placed on ice in a cooler, the heart is connected to a portable device that keeps it at a human-like, metabolically active state-allowing transplant surgeons to travel farther distances to retrieve donor hearts. “We are eager to continue witnessing the improved access this system has brought to our patients.” “Cedars-Sinai was one of the largest enrolling clinical trial sites for the Organ Care System’s Proceed II clinical trial and remains active in enrolling patients in its current EXPAND and DCD clinical trials,” said Esmailian, who has served as principal investigator for all the trials. Fardad Esmailian, MD, surgical director of heart transplant and mechanical circulatory support at Cedars-Sinai, says the device has already gained approval in Europe and Australia and has been tested in the U.S. The OCS Heart is the only such device currently under review with the Food and Drug Administration and is being used as part of a clinical trial at Cedars-Sinai. “The Heart in a Box technology is helping break down a major barrier of transplantation, ultimately offering many patients a second chance at life.” “Cedars-Sinai has the biggest adult heart transplant program in the world and takes on some of the most complex surgical cases,” said Emerson, associate surgical director of heart transplant and mechanical circulatory support and surgical co-director of the Cardiac Surgery Intensive Care Unit at Cedars-Sinai. Now that is all changing, thanks to a medical device called the OCS Heart, or “Heart in a Box,” which enables transplant surgeons to travel to much farther destinations to procure lifesaving organs by acting as a miniature intensive care unit that keeps the heart alive. Until recently, those flights were quick jaunts lasting no more than four hours-the time a donor heart can survive on ice. ![]() At any given moment, they can get the call that a donor heart or lungs are available, requiring them to quickly board a private aircraft to procure the vital organs. ![]() Dominic Emerson, MD, and Pedro Catarino, MD, both transplant surgeons with the Smidt Heart Institute, know how to be spontaneous. ![]()
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